Affiliate Marketing AdventuresLife in the Fast Lane

Ranking high in Google’s search results can have a great impact on the success of your business. You may either engage the experience of a Search Engine Optimization company, or if you’ve got the time, there are some changes you can make to your web site yourself.

Step one : Keyword Research

What keywords do you suspect your buyers would type in to go looking for your products or services? A keyword can be one word (e.g. Optimization), but multiple keywords or keyword phrases are generally preferred, because they’re more explicit and more certain to be what your clients are on the lookout for (e.g. Search Engine Optimization Service). Write down as much as you can think about. Brainstorm with your team.

Think about alternative words. Consider geographical phrases if they’re necessary to your client (e.g. House cleaning Memphis). Also, get some concepts from your competitors’ web sites. Try and make a catalogue of 20-30 keyword phrases. Select the 2 keyword phrases you believe would be searched for the most. But also remember, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is to gain top rankings. If you need to rank high in Google for the keyword ‘insurance’, you’ve got a long journey ahead.

So try your best to choose 2 keyword phrases that are the most important to your business but that are not general nor competitive. It’s a smart idea to have two or three words in each phrase (e.g. Wedding catering services) Once you have chosen your two best keyword phrases the very next step shows you the easiest way to make some improvements to your index page.

Step two : Web Copy

Web copy pertains to all of the words or text on your site. Because content is king in the world of search engines, your keyword phrases have to be placed strategically on your web page to persuade Google that your content is highly applicable to those keywords. The more notable they are, the better. (Remember that as significant as search engines are, buyers come first, so be sure your copy also reads well.)

Here’s how to increase each keyword’s importance:

- Place your keywords in headings, ideally at the start of the heading
- Include keywords towards the head of the page
- Bold or italicize keywords where suitable. Rather than having a link to another page that announces’Click here to read more’, modify it to incorporate your keywords, e.g. ‘Read more about our seo copywriting Services’.
- A very important tip is to also include these keywords in your HTML title tag.

Use your content management system to make these changes yourself, or maybe ask your web developer to do it if you’re not sure how. After you have tweaked your default page, consider adding new content, like detailed outlines of what you offer, FAQs and informative articles about your goods and services.
If you do not wish to write these yourself, they can be found for free online – perform a search for articles index. It is also good to remember that search engines can only read text, not photos. Normally web developers insert words in photographs to look better for web site visitors or use Flash for animation, but this is a major obstacle to search engines.

Step three : Linking

Each link from another web site to your web site (not from your own site) is regarded by search engines as a vote of recognition for your business and will enhance your rankings. But it’s the quality, not quantity, of the links that’s vital. The other web sites should be relevant to your industry, and ideally highly rated themselves. Ten quality links count much more than several links from low ranked web sites.

In the same way your private business network can have a major effect on the success of your business, so too the network you build on the web. Brainstorm all of the applicable sites that might link to you. For example, non-competing firms, and industry bodies and organizations. Write a friendly e-mail to each describing the benefit their guests would get in knowing about your business, and request them to make a link to your web site. Most of the people won’t reply first time round, so a follow-up telephone call is usually needed.

How do I monitor my results? Watch your rankings in Google over the following few months by typing your selected keywords into the search box, and recording your ranking. Also look at your hosting reports to understand what keyphrases your visitors are using to find your site. The above process can be also be repeated for each page of your web site. Don’t forget to keep updating your content, and ceaselessly increase the amount of links to your web site.

As you see your rankings climb you must see a corresponding increase in web traffic and an important rise in sales inquiries. Be certain to record the source of your customer inquiries, so you can measure the success of your promoting efforts. Remember, if you measure it, you can improve it.